Beets! Where have you been all my life?

Monday, July 22, 2013

Watching my mother eat beets when I was a kid made me quiver. She would eat pickled beets as if they tasted good. I had read here on Spark and on heard on Dr. Oz beets were good for you. I recently read this:

Out I went to buy some beets to force feed myself some healthy lifestyle. This morning I decided to "man up" and give the beets a try. I was thinking " Really?" "Are you really going to eat these just because they are good for you?" It really felt desperate. So I found Chef Megan's recipe for pickled beets and I will be making those later. I figured it would be safe because any time she has introduced me to a kitchen kitchen adventure it has gone so well.

I started off my morning with a detoxing blueberry beet smoothie. It was so good, I want another. I was surprised beets actually taste good.

Next up will be a beet avocado smoothie. I won't be skipping beets in my diet at all in the future. What is your favorite beet recipe?

Beets are great! I slice them and roast them with other veggies or bake them like French fries, add them to soups, and I've shredded them to make some yummy beet cakes! Like, actual cakes. But made with beets! It was pretty fun and I thought they tasted really good (I made both vanilla and chocolate beet cakes). And now you've reminded me that I actually have some beets in the freezer right now - I should get those out and do something with them because beets are definitely yummy! :)

I just bought beets at our farmer's market yesterday, thinking I would give them a second try. I LOVE pickled beets, but what a chore. The last beets I cooked tasted exactly like dirt to me. Why? I'm clueless. So I am going to research a better way to prepare them. Glad I saw your post!

I love beets! I even put the beet greens in my morning green smoothie when I have them. Beet chips are really good too, however I will note - I sliced up a bag of beets one day and put them in my dehydrator to make my own. I learned why they are expensive to buy! A whole bag of beets dries to about 1 cup of the smallest chips I've ever seen!

Pickled beets, roasted beets, cooked beets, I haven't found a beet I didn't like! They are great for your health - moms know best, right? My mom used to try to make me eat liver - I'm not willing to try that again, though! LOL

I love beets!!! My mother never served them when I was a kid, so I didn't encounter them until about 15 years ago. My favorite way to eat them is as a salad- grated (raw) with some grated carrots with a little salt, pepper and olive oil on top. SO delicious!

Whenver discussing foods you hate, well, beets were on my list right at the top. Now as I am more of a cook and love to hit farmer's markets I have to admit, beets are good looking plants! I also have just started to "not hate them" when they are roasted and little bits of them are in a salad. But I'm not ready for beet smoothies yet, that's for sure.

I will continue on with my beet deficit BUT the door is cracked and they are starting to slide in!

I forgot to add, I LOVE BORSCHT. My friend who was Metis, her husband was Russian Ukranian heritage and she learned to make borscht soup, from her mother'n'law. Every fall she'd come up north with a load of beets, we'd all show up to help with the prep, she'd make the soup and we'd make buns. Her home would be filled with people showing up for soup. Oh my goodness it's delcious! If you haven't had this, you really must try it. I've never had it cold, but I imagine it's good too.

I grew up eating fresh beets from the garden Ė pickled, boiled Ė didnít matter. I also loved the greens (tops) of the beets. Mum cooked them up like spinach. Put on some vinegar and YUM. I havenít ate beets since I was diagnosed with IBD because it was causing gut issues. Itís one vegetable that I havenít reintroduced to my diet, mainly due to not having any beets available. My parents donít have a garden, I cannot have one where I live and I havenít seen beets sold in a grocery store for a long time. Enjoy your beets. Oh and I never heard of them in smoothies Ė do you cook them up first? Enjoy!!

I always liked beets, buy my daughter Becky would turn up her nose at them. Then she read about how good they are for us, and decided to try them this summer. In fact, she just left for the local farm stand to buy some more. This year I tried a new way of fixing them (I do love them pickled though) and roasted them in the oven. I usually have them cooked, sliced with a little butter and salt and pepper on them. Yummmm